


The Nightmare

by joshiferdallas



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic, Established Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, F/F, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 06:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11307621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joshiferdallas/pseuds/joshiferdallas
Summary: Emma and Regina's domesticated life barely contained any arguments since Regina proposed, but when one petty argument causes the pair to go to bed on bad terms Regina finds herself facing her biggest nightmares.





	The Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone. I originally wrote this about three years ago and posted it over on ff.net but when someone left a little review on it recently, I decided to re-read it and it turned out to be pretty naff. So, I decided to re-write it while I'm procrastinating my other stories because I suck. And yes, if you're reading this and wondering why the hell I haven't updated Swan's Anatomy in forever, I apologise profusely. A new chapter is coming, I promise. I'm just having some serious trouble trying to decide which one of the 15 chapters I've written for it should be used... 
> 
> Yeah, so I hope you all enjoy this little one-shot and I would love it if you guys could leave some comments to let me know what you think! 
> 
> Enjoy!

"Oh, for goodness sake, Emma, grow up!" Regina hissed through gritted teeth. She didn't need to attempt to make her voice sound intimidating; it just came naturally to her. Her voice was low enough for it to travel to Emma, and Emma only, leaving Henry at peace in his bed on the floor above. "Just apologise and we can be done with this ridiculous tirade."

"Huh! That is rich. Why should _I_ be apologising when _you_ were the one in the wrong?" Being the only one in the relationship who couldn't actually mask the emotions in her voice, Emma cleared her throat to attempt to rid the lump that had formed and constricted against her windpipe. Even though the blonde was far more upset than she was letting on, her tone was cutting. " _I_ wasn't the one that refused to spend time with our kid because he wanted us to play on the games console with him!"

"That's what you think this is about?" Regina's voice became sterner as she took a predatory step towards the blonde. "Emma, you called me ' _an evil bitch_ ' because I needed your help with the dinner _you_ wanted."

" _You_ ripped the controller out of my hands!"

"Yes, and you sulked because you didn't want to help!" Regina scoffed and shook her head. She had been more than hurt by the evening's turn of events, and she sure as hell was not going to step down and roll over for this one. "And to top it all off, you even muttered to our son about how much of a _'pain in your ass_ ' I am. Yes, how very _charming_ of you, Emma. You're constantly acting like an overgrown child! I know that's what your parents want, but it's not exactly a good example for our son, is it?"

Chocolate eyes burned into Emma's green ones. Vexation and disappointment swam between them, dipping and diving between each woman. They had both royally pissed one another off all week; they both knew that a blowout was going to come eventually. It was inevitable, but _this_ wasn't the way it should have happened.

"If you don't like the way I live and act, Emma, maybe you should just leave because we all know your parents would _love_ to baby you until the day they die." She paused for a moment, all but allowing the growl that formed in her throat emit. "And we all know how good you are at leaving when things become too tough. You might as well pack up and leave now - save for any future difficulties."

"I can't believe you're actually stooping this low because I got mad at you for obliterating Henry's controller when it vibrated in your hands because you pulled it from mine." Emma shook her head, stepping back to lean against the desk that sat in the middle of Regina's home office. "You can't blame me for the fight or flight reflex. _You_ were the once who influenced it! If _someone_ hadn't cast a curse that forced my parents to ship me to Maine, I never would have developed the need to run, nor would my parents want to baby me! In their minds, they had me three years ago, Regina. Can you really blame them?"

Tonight, both women were pulling out the big guns. From the very beginning of their relationship, they had come to a mutual agreement never to use each other's pasts or biggest flaws against one another. But here they were in an ultimate shoot-out, playing the most cutting cards. Emma hadn't used the curse against Regina since long before they began dating, and Regina hadn't dared to accuse the blonde of wanting to run, knowing her past of being unable to stick around long enough for things to get ' _real_ '. She hadn't even mentioned Emma's spell of itchy feet when their relationship turned from something fun to romantically serious.

When Regina didn't reply, Emma kicked the backboard of the wooden desk and huffed. "I'm sick of you trying to change who I am just because you don't like a few things that I do. When you proposed to me, you vowed to love me unconditionally – with all of my flaws – but clearly those words meant nothing to you."

"Emma…" Regina reached out to her fiancée. Her arm reached nothing but air as it fell back to her side.

"No, Regina," Emma shook her head again and pushed herself from her perch on the lip of the desk. She didn't have to look at Regina to see how hurt the woman was herself. Emma could feel it. She could feel the woman's emotions in the pit of her own stomach, and yet her own exhausted and irate demeanour forced her to ignore it. "I'm going to bed."

Before Regina could even attempt to stop her, Emma barged past through the study and out of the door. Her light footfalls up the mahogany staircase echoed loudly through the silent foyer as she headed to their bedroom. When the door didn't even slam behind her, Regina felt her heart rise out of her chest to block any and all airways in her throat. When Emma was angry or upset, Regina could count on it that the blonde would slam as many doors as she could find. But when the blonde was giving up, her entire body seemed to too.

Doors stopped slamming, heavy feet lightened, and an emptiness that never should have been in the young woman's eyes seemed to succumb her entire persona. This was Emma Swan giving up. There wasn't a lot in the world that scared Regina. But Emma Swan giving up terrified her.

The longing desire to sprint up the stairs to apologise just so she could hold the woman tightly in her arms was overwhelming. It was just as overwhelming as the voices in her head that screamed any attempt of apologising would be fruitless. Her words would be empty. She didn't want to apologise, nor did she see that she needed to, and yet something in her was desperate to fall to her knees and beg for her fiancée's forgiveness. Or maybe not so dramatically, but she did want the woman's forgiveness.

At the same time, she was more than angry that the other woman had stormed out of the home office, especially since she knew exactly what it meant. Long before they began dating, Emma Swan was far too successful at storming out on an argument, simply because she knew she was losing. It was what she did, and it was what she was good at. She always left an argument she knew she couldn't win. And even though Regina had called the blonde 'a pathetic excuse for a princess' and accidentally slapped her out of her own frustration, Regina couldn't help but feel they with all of the occurrences that evening – and through the week – they were both equally to blame.

Instead of quickly calming herself and joining Emma in their room with the hope of some sincere double sided apologies, she sunk into the chaise lounge (the same one that her fiancée insisted would look good in the study – especially with her on it), and generously served herself a large tumbler of homemade cider in the hopes that the burning liquid would help to stop the unwanted tears that threatened to stream down her cheeks.

For so long before their engagement, Regina reveled in the arguments or spats they had on a regular basis. She enjoyed them so much, in fact, that she would willingly go out of her way just to provoke the other woman into biting. Pissing off Emma Swan used to send an electrical feeling through her body. When the woman rolled into town in her beat-up yellow beetle, Regina had never felt so alive. It excited her to the point where she physically _craved_ the lack of personal space between them when they screamed obscenities at one another. It wasn't healthy, but it pushed them in the right direction in their relationship. The air was completely clear between them when they began dating, and it was all because of their constant _bickering_.

Since then, Regina began to hate it. She hated the snarls and the glares that she shot Emma, and Emma shot her right back. Any arguments or disagreements were simply caused out of the domesticity of their lives. It was always the little things; Emma leaving her boots at the bottom of the stairs instead of the rack, Regina leaving _endless_ amounts of product in the bathroom, and both of them returning home from work later than they had promised. There was never any spite in their words. Except for tonight.

Taking a full mouth of cider, Regina swallowed heavily and let her head fall backwards onto the plush material of the chair, thinking about just how their small disagreements through the week had turned into a fully fledged fight. She couldn't even remember what had caused them to start to irritate each other to begin with. What she could remember as clear as day, however, was how she had told Emma to leave. She had essentially told the love of her life — her _true love_ — to pack up and leave.

She hadn't meant it, of course. But her own fight or flight instincts, very much like the flaws she had pointed out in Emma, all but forced her into an attempt to detach herself from the situation. Just the sheer thought that Emma could actually make true to her word make Regina want to vomit. She had already lost Daniel and her father; she had almost lost Henry on countless occasions, and now, she could be faced with possibly losing the one person she had ever given herself to fully because she told her to leave.

_Would she leave?_

_No_ , she couldn't think like that. If Emma was going to leave, she would have done so years ago. She never would have agreed to marry Regina. She never would have dived completely into wedding planning. And she never would have scoured Regina's vault to find books on magical conception for their near future. Emma was just as committed to their relationship as Regina was. Except, Emma had never told her to leave. Regina had.

Her stomach dropped at the thought of what she had done. Knowing the woman she adored with every fiber of her being, Regina knew well enough that Emma was still struggling to find her way in Storybrooke. She still asked to do certain things around the house that she should have just done anyway, and near enough refused any guests without Regina's permission. In Emma's mind, 108 Mifflin Street was still Regina's house, even though she owned a set of keys for years, and her name was on the deed to the house, right next to Regina's. It was as much Emma's house as it was Regina's, but for a woman who had never had a place to call her own or a family that were hers and only hers, the drastic change had been overwhelming. So to tell someone who still had to correct themselves into referring to the mansion as home to _leave_ was a stupid mistake.

In a flash, Regina's half drunk glass of cider sat forgotten on the coffee table as she clambered towards the stairs to the woman she silently prayed was asleep in their bed, instead of halfway down a drainpipe attached to the back of the house. She crept up the staircase, hoping not to wake their sleeping son, or, hopefully, Emma in doing so. When she reached the top of the stairs, her feet carried her directly to their bedroom door, where her hand gripped the doorknob and pushed it open. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but when they finally did, it wasn't difficult to find the woman in question sleeping soundly on their bed.

Well, _soundly_ wasn't really the word Regina would have used when she spotted the blonde holding her knees tightly to her chest, clutching onto a pillow with a frown etched onto her face. Had the brunette turned on a light, she would have seen the tear stains that ran down right down to her chin. She also would have noticed that it was her own pillow the other woman clung to for dear life.

Regina let out a heavy sigh of relief as she prepared herself for bed through every step of her usual nightly routine. Remove make-up, brush out hairspray, add the day's clothes to the hamper, remember to empty the hamper in the morning, moisturise, pyjamas, fold down the sheets… _kiss Emma goodnight_. The final part of her nightly routine stumped the brunette. She wanted to kiss her fiancée goodnight, like she did every night, but the way the blonde lay with her back to Regina's side of the bed brought her back to reality. Technically she had no right to steal a kiss from the woman in her bed, even if it was a long running part of both of their nightly routines.

She huffed in utter frustration and slid into her side of the bed. It was cold. For the first time in three years, her side of the bed was cold. Usually, Emma would have been sprawled out across the damn thing, letting her body heat warm the sheets as she waited for Regina to join her. And even when Regina was first into the sheets, it somehow felt warmer knowing that strong arms would soon be wrapped tightly around her waist.

Emma hadn't even left and Regina was already beginning to miss her infuriating little blonde.

Having never actually gone to bed on bad terms, having made a firm agreement that arguments should be left _outside_ the bedroom, Regina didn't quite know how she was going to sleep without her human-shaped mattress beneath her. She pulled the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes, painfully ignoring her other half's ragged, heavy breaths as she slept.

' _This will all be over in the morning_ ,' She tried to reassure herself as her mind wandered and teetered towards insomnia, until finally, she was granted peace and her body fell into a deep, blissful sleep.

_At first, Regina saw nothing. She was surrounded by… nothing. There was nothing to feel, nothing to touch, nothing to see. She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hands as she slowly started to come around. The world surrounding her finally sharpened into focus. She blinked multiple times as the world around her finally began to move like it had never stopped even for a millisecond. Hand maids were fussing around her ankles, some were pulling against the corset at the back of her dress, and the little girl in the corner of her eye caught her attention from her staring contest with herself in the mirror. She tore her eyes away from her petite frame clad in the most beautiful and elegant wedding gown she had ever seen to look at Snow White with a sad smile_

_"Wow… You are most certainly the most fairest of them all!" The young child beamed, visibly taking in everything that Regina was._

_"Thank you, dear." Said Regina through gritted teeth as she stepped down from the podium she had been hoisted upon. Her voice monotone and sarcastic as she dismissed her handmaids with a mere flick of her wrist. Her mouth opened to continue her conversation, but everything seemed to blur into one continuous stream of events. Her own voice, and the voice of young Snow rang as a mellow hum in her ears, until her body was halted back into the moment as her mother glided into the room._

_The miller's daughter's sinister looking grin on her lips shined brighter as the pride filled her eyes._

_"Snow, you need to go to your room and help with the packing. Your father wants you ready for the journey, and we're heading to your castle first thing in the morning." Cora spoke to the young girl in a much softer tone than Regina could ever remember her mother using with her. Another painful pang against her heart._

_The child shared a few words with Cora before leaving Regina's chamber with a skip in her step, clearly knowing full well that her wishes had been granted to have a new young mother to replace the one that had been taken so prematurely from her. Just the sight of her happiness that Regina's own happy ending had been violently ripped from her made the already brewing anger grow into hostile fury. It was more than a feat for Regina to stop herself from storming past her mother to follow the little girl and rip her heart out of her chest to crush it in her own little fists._

_"Well-played, dear. You're learning." Smiled Cora as she reached for Regina's reluctant hand._

_The young, future queen ducked her head slightly and pulled at the fabric of her dress. "I should change. I wouldn't want to ruin the dress before my big day."_

_"I am so proud of you,"_

_The words came tumbling out of Cora's mouth before Regina could fully comprehend what she meant. She smiled at her mother in false gratitude before she turned to walk away. She hadn't made any more than a few inches distance between herself and her mother before the realisation hit her square in the face, ultimately tearing the breath from her lungs. She knew. She knew everything._

_"You knew the King was travelling through our land, didn't you? That steed with Snow on it... It didn't go wild on its own, did it?" Regina asked the questions as her mind reeled through them. Her breathing was already heavy, and her skin felt tight against the flesh beneath it. The dress that clung so tightly to her petite frame only seemed to gain weight, physically pulling her body into a slump._

_"I have no idea what you're saying," Cora bluffed through an empty stare._

_For a moment, Regina almost believed her. For a moment, she almost believed that fate wanted her to be in this situation - to one day become Queen and rule the White Kingdom. But that moment faded as fast as it came. The almost hopeful look on her face contorted into a perfectly animalistic snarl. Her voice crawled up from her chest, slurring out like a growl. "I should have let her die on that horse."_

_As soon as the words left her mouth, the world around her began to twist and warp painfully, pulling her limbs in several different directions, tugging her down. Down. Down._

_The first thing she saw when her vision cleared and the pain eased, was a lush green meadow that Regina swore she would have recognised anywhere. It was the very same rolling meadow that her darling father had so long ago taught her to ride the very horse she was saddled into. She tugged her feet in the stirrups, kicking back on the horse, causing them both to propel forward in a gallop. The breeze blew through her hair. The birds in the sky and the trees around chirped cheerfully. Everything was perfect, and exactly how Regina had remembered those summer days of her youth, riding Rocinante in her favourite blue riding outfit._

_The horse galloped towards the lone oak tree in the middle of the field, where a sneaky, dark haired young man hid behind the trunk. She grinned the moment she spotted his stable-boy attire._ Daniel _._

_She pulled back the leather reins in her hand, forcefully pulling her trusty steed to a stop. She flung herself off the horse and let her nimble legs carry her at full pelt towards Daniel's open arms._

_The beginning of their conversation was a blur, much like the conversation she had with Snow in her previous memory, but the moment magic was brought into the conversation, everything became clear again._

_"Have you not seen her magic? The real question is: what can't she do?" Regina asked as she eased her arms around Daniel's shoulders, reveling in the comforting hold he had around her waist._

_"Who cares about magic? True Love is the most powerful magic of all. It can overcome anything."_

_Then she heard it. The scream. The bloodcurdling scream that made her stomach painfully drop. It echoed through her mind as if the noise was piercing her brain; like it would be etched upon her memory forever._

_"Help! Somebody help me!" A young girl with hair as dark as the night and skin as white as snow flew through the meadow on the back of a steed that stood far too tall for a child of her age to be riding. The horse was out of control as it galloped past the star-crossed lovers hiding behind the large oak tree, who could clearly see that the tight grip the child had on her saddle would be unable to hold her much longer._

_"Regina, we should help," Daniel insisted as his tight grasp around Regina's waist fell. He tried to move around the brunette but failed when she wedged him between herself and the trunk of the tree, trapping him from moving an inch._

_"No way, it is far too dangerous for us. We cannot get involved in this. I am not losing you, Daniel. Especially not for saving an idiot child from the back of a rogue horse."_

_A louder scream echoed across the valley and rang in Regina's ears, until suddenly, it stopped. The silence that filled the air around them was deafening. Regina's head whipped around in time to see the young girl finally lose her grasp on the pommel of the saddle. Her small body was bucked into the air, throwing her a few feet in front of the horse, where she landed painfully on her back. The horse didn't stop, nor did it make any attempt to move around the girl. Instead, it continued to gallop unfazed over the child; its hooves trampling over her ribs._

_Both Regina and Daniel gasped at the sight, forgetting any possibility of the two of them being caught together, and sprinted across the field to the who lay on her back. Her eyes were open and her head deep in a puddle of her own blood. Even in death, the poor child's beauty radiated. Regina wanted to reach down to cradle the child in her arms, but the sight of the child's arms and legs were sprawled in awkward positions that never should have been possible._

_The young woman, who had been planning to elope with her love only moments before let out a gut wrenching sob. Before she could reach out for her lover in question, however, the ground beneath her feet flew open, successfully swallowing her whole. It pulled her deeper and deeper in the the furthest depths of darkness imaginable. Her mind swam with endless memories - memories Regina didn't recognise, but felt. She watched as her mother slapped her face inside the stables before punching her fist directly into Daniel's chest, ripping his heart out and crushing the organ between her fingers. She watched her life crumble around her from the moment her mother disowned her, to the second Storyrbooke collapsed at her feet in nothing more than a puff of smoke._

_Then there was Emma. The tall, beautiful blonde she called her own stood in the middle of a dissolving Main Street with her hand out for Regina to hold. As she reached out to take the pale fingers between her own olive ones, the woman in the red leather jacket began to disintegrate with their surroundings, leaving her alone once again in utter darkness. Not even the sound of her screams could fill the emptiness around and inside her._

_"Goodbye, mom," She heard the sounds of her son's deepening voice from behind her. Her head whipped around to see her not-so-little boy somewhere in the darkness. Her hands reached out, hoping to land on something -_ anything _._

_They fell through midair, down to her sides once again._

_After that, everything happened so fast. Regina found herself walking, jogging sprinting through the darkness as the universe around her swirled back into focus one more time. She wasn't in Storybrooke anymore. She was in the Enchanted Forest again, standing atop of a horse beside the same lone oak tree that stood in the acres of land her parents cherished. The thick, heavy rope that sat around her neck, atop her shoulders itched against the only visible skin of her chest. As a tear slowly fell from her cheek, she kicked the back end of the horse and allowed herself to fall._

Usually, Emma Swan slept like the dead. The only thing known to wake her from her precious sleeping hours were Regina's well placed kisses and _occasionally_ the smell of Regina cooking pancakes with bacon on a Sunday morning. But tonight, as she clutched onto her fiancée's pillow instead of the woman herself, she felt the wind in her lungs get kicked out by a dainty size five foot to the ribs. She gasped loudly, trying to suck in as much air into her body as humanly possible before she turned to glare at the foot's owner. The vile look on her face faded immediately as her eyes lay on the woman tossing and turning beside her with a contorted expression on her face.

"Regina," She nudged the brunette's shoulder delicately as her brow furrowed in concern. When Regina didn't answer she nudged her again. "Regina."

For a few moments, the former Queen seemed to settle again. Her expression on her face settled and her stiff body seemed to ease, if it was only for a brief moment. Just as Emma settled her head back into her pillow, facing Regina this time, she heard sobs and subsequent screeches that followed. Guilt flooded through the blonde before she could even contemplate what she should do.

Going on nothing more than sheer instinct, Emma wrapped her arms tightly around Regina's shoulders and pulled the woman towards her. She settled her petite body between her legs and slowly began to rock the woman side-to-side, whispering sweet nothings into her ear as she screamed and wept through her dream.

"Regina, sweetheart, wake up," Emma begged as she pressed kisses into the brunette's damp and sticky hairline as her body protested through violent kicks.

Emma didn't know what else to do when Regina's arms started swinging and a scream erupted from her chest. She didn't know whether it would be the right thing to do as she shuffled the woman in her arms around so her back lay on the inside of Emma's thigh. Her head fell onto Emma's chest as the sobs continued, even as Emma worriedly began to tap her cheek with the palm of her hand.

"Come on, baby, wake up,"

It was a gasp. A painful gasp that made Emma sigh with relief, letting out the numerous breaths she had no idea she was holding. She stroked the pad of her thumb across Regina's bottom lip as the woman inhaled a few ragged breaths before slowly opening her eyes to see the terrified looking woman leaning over her.

"Hey..." Emma's voice was softer than a whisper, but Regina heard it. Her hand shot up to cup the blonde's pinked cheeks.

"Emma..." She breathed out before another round of uncontrollable sobs were expelled from her chest.

"It's okay, I've got you," Strong arms pulled Regina further into Emma's embrace as the blonde pressed several more kisses onto the top of her love's head. "You're safe, I've got you."

Emma held Regina between her legs, cradling her head close to her chest. She dragged the fingers of her right along the brunette's scalp, brushing the locks of hair between her digits, while using her left to trace delicate and soothing patterns along an olive arm. For a while, Regina continued to sob, letting her tears stream freely down her cheeks as she tried to reach out and grip any piece of fabric or any other part of the blonde she could firmly hold in her hands to ground her back to reality. With one fist full of the blonde's oversized _Boston Bruins_ t-shirt, and the other collecting blonde curls at the back of Emma's neck, Regina finally allowed herself to completely relax into the embrace.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked when Regina's tears dried and her breathing evened.

The brunette merely sniffled and gripped the curls in her fist tighter.

Emma brushed a few loose strands of hair out of Regina's face, tucking them behind her ear. She took the woman's chin between her thumb and forefinger to bring her face up to her own. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

"Don't you dare ever leave me," Regina's voice was raw from her shouting, screaming and crying through her sleep. She cleared her throat and loosened her grip only slightly on the back of Emma's head. " _Please_."

Emma wanted to laugh. She wanted to chuckle and press childish kisses along Regina's face just to distract her or elicit _something_ positive from the woman. But when she truly looked into her lover's eyes, Emma felt almost relieved that she had waited. Her long pause had given her enough time to actually get a glimpse of the fear that resided in Regina's eyes. It had always been there. They both knew that – the fear that one day either one of them could be completely alone again – was an issue they both had yet to overcome. It was the very same reason that caused them both to hold on too tight; to love too hard and ultimately fear the worst.

"I'm not going anywhere, I promise," Emma didn't laugh. Instead, she pulled Regina closer and closed the distance between them. Emma pressed her thin lips against Regina's in a delicate kiss. It was short and sweet, but the love that radiated from the blonde bled into the action, internally warming Regina from inside out. In that moment, it was enough to validate the blonde's promise. "Talk to me about the dream – you'll never sleep otherwise."

Regina stared into Emma's eyes for a moment as she tried to divulge into so many unanswered questions that seemed to revolve around why her fiancée was still being so generously kind to her. Their fight still lingered in the back of her mind, even when she saw the love and compassion that swam through deep seas of green behind Emma's heavy lids. Regina was almost waiting for the ball to drop when Emma used the pad of her thumb to wipe away the lingering tears that still sat on her cheeks.

"I don't know what it was," She started as Emma pulled them closed to the headboard so she could lean back. Once comfortable again, Regina readjusted herself in Emma's arms and lay her head on the blonde's chest. She listened for a moment to the steady beating of the woman's heart before she continued. "At first, I thought it was a memory… I was in my wedding gown – the one I was sewn into for my marriage to Leopold. Snow was there, and so was my mother. They were talking about the wedding and I was so angry. I was angrier than I ever remembered – all I wanted to do was crush Snow's heart and be done with all of it."

Regina didn't know she was crying again until Emma began whispering sweet nothings into her ear as she caught every fallen tear with gentle caresses of her fingers. She held Emma's hand against her cheek and turned to place a tender kiss in her palm. She had made her peace with Snow White and Prince Charming over two years ago, when she promised to her son and the woman she had no idea she was falling in love with that she would try. It took a while, and a lot of sessions with Archie, before finally, Regina began addressing her former foe without snarls or sarcastic comments. Although, the latter remained out of force of habit - or at least, that's what she told them, anyway. But in the two years since their truce, Regina hadn't on any occasion thought about destroying Snow White once and for all; not even during Thanksgiving and Christmas, where Emma and Henry had practically forced them to spend time together. She had wanted to strangle the former princess, yes, but destroy her entirely? No way.

They were family now, and as much as Regina was loathe to admit it, she loved the two idiots.

The brunette cringed slightly before she took Emma's sad, yet encouraging smile as a prompter to continue.

"I told my mother that I should have let Snow die on that horse, and then everything stopped being true," She inhaled a heavy, ragged breath and held on tight to the wrist connected to the hand that still cupped her cheek. "I saw myself with Daniel again, the day Snow's horse turned wild. I told him we couldn't help her - it would only have caused trouble for ourselves. So we didn't. We hid until we saw Snow's horse buck her into the air-"

Her chest felt tight. Tighter than she ever imagined it could feel as she gasped, trying her damned hardest to pull as much oxygen into her burning lungs as possible. The attempt was futile. Every deep breath in elicited a deeper breath out.

"Hey, it's okay, Regina. _Breathe_ ," Emma whispered into the sensitive spot of her temple. She tightened her hold around Regina's waist and tried to rock them both side-to-side against the bed's headboard as her fingers threaded through damp, dark locks. "Just breathe, babe. You're safe. It's okay."

Regina shook her head, taking in a few deep breaths as she gripped impossibly tighter around Emma's wrist to ground herself back into _their_ bed, into _their_ life. _Their_ happy ending.

"It's _not_ okay, my love. I let her die on that horse!" She sobbed through heavy breaths. "I let her die before you were born — before Henry was born! I lost both of you from one decision and my life was… it was…"

"Nothing like it really is," Emma finished for her, knowing full well that they weren't the exact words Regina would have used herself, but it was good enough. Her hand tangled in Regina's hair slowly traveled down to cup the woman's chin, slowly caressing every line and curve of soft skin until it reached its final destination. "You saved Snow. You risked everything to save her on that horse and I know you. I know you would do it again and again in every life because it's who you are. You are a _good_ person. Snow had to survive, and _you_ had to become Queen because you never would have had Henry and me. You got Henry and me because you have always been a good person — even if a few bad things happened along the way."

Emma a pulled Regina closer by her chin to press another kiss on her lips. Their lips together were like butter, sliding over one another in perfect synchrony like it was effortless. It was a kiss they had shared thousands of times before, and yet, like the first, it was so full of love, adoration and understanding, it made Regina's eyes roll to the back of her head in appreciation. She hummed into the kiss and slung her arm around Emma's shoulder, holding her as close as humanly possible.

When their kiss broke, Regina pulled Emma down closer, so her back arched awkwardly and their foreheads pressed together, connecting yet another part of their bodies.

"Henry and I aren't going anywhere," Emma breathed into the very little space between them, making Regina shiver as her puffs of breath landed on her lips. "You're stuck with us forever."

" _Good_." Regina smiled and wiped away the stray few tears on her cheeks with the tips of her fingers before she sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Why on earth are you apologising?" Emma gave a light-hearted chuckle and kissed Regina's lips with a grin.

"For the way things transpired this week. I didn't mean the things I said..." Regina paused as she tried to hold back the blush that threatened to pink her cheeks. "You have a way of _seriously_ frustrating me."

"And you frustrate me too." Emma smiled, threading her fingers back through her fiancee's hair. "The things we both said were empty threats and were nothing more than worried words. Regina, I can see it written all over your face that you're worried that I'm going to feel too tied-down and uncomfortable and that I could run at any point, but I need you to know that I'm not going to do it. However tough things get I'm always going to be here for you and Henry. There is no chance that I'm going to suddenly up and leave unless the two of you are with me."

Regina opened her mouth for a second to argue, but was stopped almost immediately in her tracks when Emma pulled them both into an open mouthed kiss that couldn't help but make Regina laugh out loud.

"And I also don't think that you're an _evil bitch_. You're just a pain in my ass sometimes." Regina feigned a hurt gasp.

"I don't really think you're a pathetic excuse for a princess, either." Regina admitted with an apologetic smile. "I don't think you're a very good one, but you're my princess and I wouldn't have it any other way."

This time, it was Emma's turn to feign being hurt, and yet the huge grin on her face seemed to give her away only slightly. She ducked her forehead onto the bridge of Regina's nose before uttering; "My Queen."

"I love you, you idiot,"

"All yours,"


End file.
